“I might prefer you like this. You look so cute, Shildina,” Sadeena continued.

“I don’t care what you think, Sadeena,” she retorted. Shildina turned into her therianthrope form and started to whack Sadeena with her tail. I took a breath in admiration. A mini killer whale! She was like some cute aquarium mascot. As cute as Keel, almost—and a lot like the Sadeena doll that S’yne had made. Sadeena proceeded to hold the transformed Shildina out at me.

“Look, little Naofumi. Isn’t little Shildina so cute?” she asked me. I gave a “hmmm,” taking Shildina from Sadeena and lifting her up. She felt so light with the difference in strength due to our levels. Shildina just wagged—if that was the word—her tail without showing any signs of displeasure. Was this what Shildina had been like when she was a child? She was small, that was for sure. I’d been treating her like an adult, but I was going to have to keep a closer eye on her now.

“Up you go! Up you go!” I said, lifting her up in the air.

“Little Naofumi?” Sadeena looked at me in bemusement. Wasn’t that what you did with a child? I’d done the same thing with Raphtalia when she’d been smaller too. I’d had my own issues back then, but Shildina would probably prefer being treated closer to her own age. I also patted her head.

“Oh dear!” Shildina didn’t seem to know how to respond. She was a child who had never been spoiled, clearly. Eventually, perhaps having run out of magic, or perhaps out of consideration for me, she turned back into her demi-human form.

“Why are you mothering Shildina, Naofumi?” Ethnobalt questioned, clearly puzzled. But there was no real reason why. I was just going with the flow. “There were quite a few childish people in your village too . . . I see.” Ethnobalt seemed to have realized something—or thought he had. Hey! There’s nothing to read into any of that!

“So this is what you’ll be like once you have children, little Naofumi,” Sadeena said.

“I should have expected that,” I commented. A stranger walking by would probably read this scene as me holding the child of Sadeena and me. At that, though, Shildina turned her fists on Sadeena.

“I’m not Sadeena’s child!” she protested.

“Oh my!” Sadeena gave a laugh, her eyes full of warmth.

“I’m going to get back to myself before you know it!” Shildina exclaimed. I was happy to see her motivated, but I hoped they didn’t fight too much.

“Raph,” said Raph-chan to attract my attention and then pointed toward a castle. There was a town around it, but it looked to be in pretty bad shape. There had definitely been a fire. The whole place looked much more rundown than before.

“Fehhh . . .” Rishia said.

“Stay alert. We need to work out the situation first,” I said.

“Oh my. I hope little Raphtalia is okay,” Sadeena commented.

“We just have to pray that’s the case. Raph-chan, can you sense where she is?” I asked. Raph-chan had started out as a shikigami used to locate Raphtalia. I wasn’t sure if that function was still working, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.